20/11/2012

Oh No! Not another Bloody Referendum

We pay our politicians good money to represent us, for that money they should bloody well do the job, rather than jib out of the job every so often and ask for a "referendum" to cover their fears of making a decision.

There is something patently ridiculous in the idea of needing a referendum to make a decision - when the referendum can only be called when those who have the power to make the decision, without a referendum, feel that the vote will go their way.

If the last need for a devolution referendum is anything to go by, we won't even have a debate about the issue of tax varying powers for the next goodness knows how many years, we will just have a convoluted debate about the best time to decide about discussing the issue!

Pathetic!

There are only two honest ways of dealing with this issue, one is for the elected to accept / reject Silk's recommendations without a referendum and accept the consequences of their decision. The other is to put the matter to a referendum as soon as is practically possible – next May - perhaps. Procrastinating about the best time will be dishonest, duplicitous and a disservice to Wales

If we have to have another bloody referendum I will, of course, make another application to lead the No campaign on a NO! Not Good Enough platform :-)

7 comments:

I don't think a referendum is needed. Westminster seems amenable to Wales having some tax-raising autonomy. Wales needs to raise money for the rapidly becoming obsolete M4. Not that Newport will be happy as they are the main target for new tunnels and by-passes over local nature reserves... As it is when they finish it, it will be obsolete too.

Isn't it time we just did away with England and Wales and renamed both countries as Britain! Same taxes, same laws, same everything, including official language (albeit with many localised languages, dialects and accents).

Makes even more sense if the Scots do indeed leave the Union. And if not, Britain can be used to represent England and Wales and Great Britain to indicate the inclusion of Scotland (Scotland retaining its own name for all other purposes).

No. Because 'British' equals English, this is widespread belief worldwide. They need putting right. British equals English equals nil diversity if we all look speak and are the same. No guesses for WHICH 'official language' you are suggesting....

The term 'Britain' is largely unknown throughout the modern world. In Europe 'Great Britain' is a well establish term and in the US it is used interchangeably with 'England'. Heaven knows what they say or think in China and surrounds but I doubt it is much different to either Europe or the US.

The term British is all encompassing but no-one is suggesting you ever need to use it. After all, there are many people who live in Wales that are not Welsh. And many who live in England that choose not to be English.

As for diversity, diversity must be allowed for all. You cannot seriously think that all of Wales wants the same as you. I would very much doubt it. Whether that be in terms of language, culture, ethnicity and so on, we are all different and must be allowed to be different. After all, the biggest difference we will always have will be in terms of wealth and education.

I don't think really 'diversity' is a trait 'Britain' has ever actually encouraged. We play at it. Up until 1914 there was England and nothing else except the colonials and the Empire. Most worldwide view Britain as the least tolerant of diversity or multi-culturalism (which never took off here). It's like that old adage "You can have any colour you want, so long as it is black..." (No pun intended. Britain feigns acceptances and diversity by side-stepping and ignoring it basically. "They do this, we do that.. so long as they don't try it with me..." If that is diversity it doesn't gel with me.... welsh has been under relentless attack for years, and the justification always is "Others prefer English.." not much of an argument for equality or acceptance is it? It's a creeping cancer of Let's not go there..... followed by the stock response Cest la Vie (As if the French are tolerant !). Just put these people in the same room, THEN see the real differences. (Assuming you can get them in the same room). British are the ultimate Hypocrites, but they do it so politely.

It's a bit like these refs that keep calling on the TMO because they lack the bottle to make a decision for themselves. In this case the team in possession knows it's scored a try but doesn't really want it. The opposition know the try has been scored and are saying take the points and of course the majority of people in the stadium know it's a try too.